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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2007 (Part 6)

The SUMO and High MOI Drivers

By Leith Anderson

The Month of March kicks off the Golf Season in Northern California. Happy New Year! For those of us in the golf business there is nothing like the relief you feel from making it to another March - presumably out of danger for a few more months. The summer of 2007 will be our sixth at the Golf Lab. For all readers who have been thinking about paying us a visit but have not yet gotten around to it, I’ll try to motivate you to make plans a visit. But, hold that thought while I wrap up some current stories.

The Nike SUMO 2

I still read the newspaper every day for my local, national and world news. But for golf information, I look to the Internet. I’ve been logging into golf forums for a long time - the Golf Equipment Aficionados for eight years. http://www.4gea.com. More recently, a controversial new site has emerged covering high-end and "Tour" equipment. www.bombsquadgolf.com. There are others: www.golfdiscussions.com, www.equip2golf.com, www.golfobserver.com, and the Professional Clubmakers’ Association website: www.proclubmakers.org. Together, they provide a good assortment of current opinions. The main reason I like the Internet is that the reaction is immediate. That’s also the reason that I know that the Nike SUMO 2 will be a success: "everyone" hates it.

I have never seen a more vitriolic reaction against any golf product. In Nike’s case, that might be deserved. Nike gets in your face. Remember, they gave you flashing lights in your sneakers. When it came time to release the SUMO 2, they claimed "SUMO Saturday" for themselves - a day before "Super Bowl Sunday" - an obvious connection. They advertised square bunkers and square lily pads - proving that they don’t mind burning money. The ads were so subtle even I didn’t get them until the third or fourth time around.

Judging from the Internet response, a lot of players tried both SUMOs on SUMO Saturday. For readers who just arrived from Mars, the SUMO 2 - to be known forever as "the square one" - is the model that gets most of the attention. The more conventional standard SUMO is a stylish update of last year’s Sasquatch. After SUMO Saturday, it was hard to find a player who was willing to stand up and say that he liked the SUMO 2. The main complaints? The loud sound, the unconventional shape and the failure to produce a miracle.

Understanding the SUMO 2

We’ve had access to the SUMOs for a couple of months at the Golf Lab. Nike made them available for pre-release testing on a media exemption - based on our ability to tweak SUMO performance and to create some "buzz".

The fundamental question is how "Moment of Inertia" (MOI) relates to drivers. Unfortunately, the industry has come up with gobbledygook for numbers. The math might as well come out of a black box. Does a high MOI rating mean that your driver will really go straighter, or longer? Is it only about square drivers? Do other shapes work? Or, is MOI just another buzz-word that is meant to sell clubs but doesn’t deliver better performance?

This is an interesting question because the golf industry has enjoyed a relentless improvement in driver technology since the original Big Bertha in 1990. Recently, experts have assumed that with USGA-imposed restrictions on head size and face resiliency, the driver performance story was over. Consequently, the driver market has been stagnant for the last couple of years. It would be a big surprise to the experts if high MOI drivers caused another round of "irrational exuberance" when nearly every golfer buys a new driver in the same year. The industry could use such a boost.

We tested a variety of Nike SUMO drivers. It’s no big surprise that off-the-rack versions are only a match for a minority of players. Here’s what we found out:

The SUMO 2 is straighter.
The SUMO 2 is a low spin driver.
The SUMO 2 is about consistency, not distance.

Our launch monitor testing - with the Max Out Launch Max and a Mitsubishi Diamana "White Board" shaft - confirmed that the SUMO 2 produced lower spin numbers than a player’s current driver. The White Board is a high bend point, stiff tip, low spin shaft. Our findings disagree with testing reported by Bombsquadgolf.com. Alas, our findings also disagree with a sister Max Out testing site in White Plains, New York - the Complete Golfer - where players were turning in spin numbers higher with the SUMO 2 than their current drivers. If you are thinking about buying a SUMO - or any high MOI driver - you should test your proposed purchase with the correct shaft length, weight, flex and bend profile on a good launch monitor before you lay down your money. Results obviously vary with the player - and depend on your swing.

It is rare to be this deep into a product release cycle without definitive answers to normally simple spin questions. I’m sticking with our analysis that the SUMO 2 is a low spin driver. We’re on record - check back in a couple of months.

Conventional wisdom says that the SUMO 2 is going to be more popular with mid to high index players who need to keep the ball in play. The SUMO 2 is easier to aim down the fairway - corners help. But the main selling point of high MOI is less lost distance on off center hits.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom I think that the high MOI drivers will be popular with low index players. Most low index players would be very happy to trade "long" for "straight". Once again, check back in a month to see which opinion is correct

The SUMOs are supplied with a proprietary Mitsubishi shaft that is painted horizontally, yellow on the belly, to look like a snake. The paint job is radical, if not particularly appealing. The horizontal paint job ignores the reality that most good players are going to realign their shafts. Yellow will no longer be on the belly. Nike should have recognized the trend to "spining", "floing" or "PUREing" the shaft with a more versatile graphic design.

Although some companies are testing their shafts to make sure that they are properly aligned to the graphics - MCC Apache is the prime example -there is no evidence that Mitsubishi is trying to find the correct shaft orientation before it applies the paint job.

Shaft flexes are surprising. The stiff flex proprietary shafts that we tested were in the high 250 CPM range, considerably stiffer than normal proprietary stiff flex shafts. That frequency rates as a "soft X" on the Professional Clubmakers’ Society Equalizer system. Conversely, the regular flex shafts measured in the low 240 range - somewhat softer than normal.

While we felt that the Mitsubishi "Diamana" shaft was better than average for proprietary shafts, the SUMO is a much better value with an upgraded shaft - supplied at no extra charge. You can buy the SUMO with a version of the UST Proforce V2 or the Aldila VS Proto. In my opinion, the best value is the Aldila option. Aldila is putting a lot of effort behind replacing their ultra popular green NV and orange NVS OEM shafts with the VS Proto. It has a high probability of being recognized as the best shaft that comes with a driver. Because of the high headweight of the SUMOs (the ones we have weighed came in over 205 grams) it is likely that a little stiffer flex will provide better performance.

Shaft Fitting

For players who visit the Golf Lab for a driver fitting, we focus on club length first. Most players are convinced that the longer the club, the longer the distance. That is incorrect.

When we fit for driver shaft length we start with the assumption that all off-the-rack drivers are too long. If a player brings a 45" driver with him to a fitting, we allow him to warm up and then hit a series of drives that we record with our Achiever launch monitor. The Achiever is a great tool for discovering patterns, such as inconsistency caused by poor balance, tempo and timing.

After a player hits a set of drives, we take his driver to the back room for a "haircut". It’s usually just half an inch. We blow the grips on with air so no waiting period is needed. The player then hits another set of drives. We compare the results. Most of the time, we find an increase in ball speed. All of the time, indicators of balance, tempo and timing improve.

If you are playing a 45" driver - or longer - there is a high probability that you will gain distance and accuracy by cutting the length down to a more manageable 44.5" or even 44". The most common length played on the PGA Tour is 44.5" so you don’t have to feel like a wimp. If you want to play a long driver and get results, go all the way to 48".

Once we find the appropriate length and flex, we turn our attention to shaft weight and bend profile. We get help in fitting shafts from the Shaft Max - an instrumented electronic golf club that measures shaft deflection in two planes and plots that deflection against a timeline - revealing a "fingerprint" of your swing and how you apply power. The graph also shows tip deflection and indicates tempo so it’s very helpful dialing in the right shaft for the ultimate fit. We have found that we can alter spin rates by several hundred RPM simply by choosing the right shaft to fit a player’s swing.

With the SUMO 2, loss of distance could be a problem for some players. In our testing in California, we compared SUMO 2 ball speeds to a player’s own driver and drivers from our array of demos. Where we noticed differences in ball speeds, they appeared to be minor. Not so in New York. The players who went through the comparative testing protocol at the Complete Golfer in White Plains frequently reported ball speeds up to five MPH lower with the SUMO 2. It should be noted that we always trim our test drivers to 44.5"; the length that we think is a good starting point for most players. In White Plains, they tested the SUMO 2 at full length with the upgraded Aldila VS Proto shaft.

Bottom line: the SUMO 2 is not a slam dunk purchase for all players. Some players just can’t get past the sound and the shape. However, we found players who took a demo to the course and wouldn’t give it back. Those were mostly tournament players who were playing demanding courses where the penalty for wayward drives is no prize money.

Maximizing MOI

Shortly after SUMO Saturday, a thread appeared on the GEA website authored by Tom Wishon - familiar to Golf Today readers as one of the authorities on technical golf club design. The gist of the thread was that conventional drivers can be modified to achieve higher MOI than the SUMO 2 with a few tweaks. Tom pointed out that the most dramatic way to increase MOI is to increase headweight. His argument was that by increasing the weight of a "standard" driver from 200 grams to roughly 208 grams by applying lead tape around the outside of the head, and at the same time decreasing the length to a more playable 44", a player would end up with a driver with a higher MOI rating than the SUMO. As usual, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Personal Experience and Recommendation

There are a lot of heavy hitters coming out against square drivers and against Nike. It’s not exactly clear if it’s the club or the company that they hate the most. It shouldn’t be too surprising when the president of Taylor Made gets quoted that the "square driver phenomenon will be over in 90 days."

Rather than form an opinion based on competitive business relationships or personal taste, I spent quite a bit of time testing and playing the SUMO 2 - and lately, the plain vanilla SUMO. My experience might help you make your own decision.

The first couple of times out, my SUMO 2 experience was not extraordinary. I had a hard time figuring out how the SUMO 2 wanted me to hit the ball. The sweet spot seemed to be near the heel and I’m a toe hitter. I usually play a 10.5* driver so I set that head up with a Mitsubishi White Board that’s one of our favorite shafts for bringing the trajectory down and reducing spin. Alas, trajectory was still too high.

I then tried the 9.5* head with the stock Diamana shaft - SST PUREd and tweaked to a PCS 6.0 flex value - exactly what I think is my perfect flex. That setup worked for good swings but the shaft was not stout enough at that flex. I lost too many to the right with the heavy draw-biased SUMO head, a sure sign that the shaft was too weak.

The magic combination turned out to be the White Board with the 9.5* head. That one was "just right". If you normally play a 10.5* driver, you will probably do better with a 9.5* SUMO 2. You will also want a stiff tip low torque shaft like the White Board or the ACCRA SC series.

I put the SUMO 2 White Board in my bag for the first round of Eric Jones’ Coaching Program. The course was Poppy Hills in Livermore, CA, the tees were blue, the day was grey and the wind was blowing. I missed three fairways, two by a foot and one by ten yards. I’ve been playing golf for 50 years and I never had a better driving day. I hit fourteen greens, made a couple of birdies and three putted twice for a 76 - my lowest score ever at Poppy Ridge. Poppy Ridge is not an easy driving course. Distances may not have been summer best, but playing from the middle of the fairway sure made the course easy on that day.

That experience was a surprise. I’d much rather trade "long" for "straight". I’m just hoping it wasn’t a "one day wonder". If that experience repeats, I’m going to be a big proponent of high MOI drivers.

Here are some thoughts that could turn a SUMO 2 into your "Magic Driver". Even though the head is only 460 cc, it looks like a small toaster. To improve balance, cut the shaft down to 44.5" or less. The big head looks better at the end of a short stick. You might add a little lead tape to the perimeter of the head if you want to bring the head weight back up a bit. The SUMO 2 is not about finesse. It is intended to be a "heavy hammer" that goes straight. Consequently, a heavier head weight and shorter length shaft has a chance to deliver more energy to the shot. Play a stiffer shaft with less torque. The idea is control, hitting fairways, not distance.

We have noticed differences in the manufacturing tolerances of the SUMOs. If you set ten SUMO 2’s side by side, some will look square and some will look closed. If you are a good player with a consistent inside-out swing path, it will be worth your time to look at a lot of SUMO 2’s and pick one that looks square to your eye. A closed face angle on a SUMO 2 makes it easy to miss your drives left.

Better yet, make sure your dealer can measure the face angle and loft to make sure you know the correct specifications and get the one that’s right for you.

What about the Standard SUMO?

With all of the attention focused on "the square one", it is quite possible that the better driver will be overlooked.

Here’s my question: if the SUMO 2 is rated at 5300 "whatever squared" and the standard SUMO is rated at 4950 "whatever squared", will that make a difference in performance? The delta is 350 units - five percent. It’s hard to imagine that a driver is no good at 4950 but great at 5300. Is there a dividing line?

I can imagine a day in the future when I walk into a custom golf shop and say I want to test drivers - but only 4900 MOI "whatever squared units" and up.

One thing is sure; the vanilla SUMO looks much more like a normal driver. The top is shaped like a Taylor Made 510 TP painted black. It is surrounded by the SUMO skirt, painted grey. The optical deception is very effective.

In a few trips to the driving range and one nine-hole practice round at the Muni, I liked the standard SUMO better than the SUMO 2 - esthetically. I played a 9.5* head with the stock stiff flex shaft. The shaft tested 258 CPM at 45" with a 5 inch clamp, grip off. That’s pretty stout. The trajectory was lower than the SUMO 2. I found that I got the same tight draw on most drives. The standard SUMO was a little easier to fade, which I attributed to a face angle that appeared square. I won’t know until my next trip to Poppy Ridge, but it was NOT obvious to me that the performance differences were significant. So, if you’re testing high MOI drivers, it would be a mistake to overlook other models with high measured MOI, including the standard SUMO.

My prediction: The SUMO is just the tip of the iceberg - Nike got out of the box first with the high MOI story. I think that a lot of high MOI drivers will find their way into players’ bags in 2007. There will surely be one in my bag. At press time, new models are showing up from most manufacturers. Some are going with the square shape; others look more like monster Portobello mushrooms. They all carry big stickers claiming "5000 MOI whatever units" or higher. Taylor Made, not to be left behind, invented a new formula so their "Super Quad" number could be higher - "beyond MOI". It’s too early to call a winner. Check in next month and cross your fingers. The golf industry needs a boost. And, save up your money. You might need to buy a new driver in 2007.

Eric Jones’s Coaching Program

For the last couple of months, I described a program to help players improve their "total game". We’ve been working with Eric Jones at the Golf Lab for three years. During that time, he’s won the REMAX Senior World Long Drive Championship and worked with hundreds of Golf Lab clients - helping beginners get started and tournament players hone their skills. Last summer, he was named Director of Instruction at Poppy Ridge, founded the Seaver Golf Academy (named in honor of his Grandfather) and received his Masters in Sports Psychology. He started his PGA education sequence. Overall, Eric is a consummate golf professional - finding a way to pursue his passion.

Signing up for a sequence of lessons with most golf professionals is just one step above the dentist on most golfers’ procrastination lists. If you’re going to sustain the pain of seeking help, how can you make absolutely, positively sure that it will work? That’s the question that Eric and I discussed for months at the Golf Lab.

Players who sign up for a series of lessons are usually disappointed. The reason is that the pro sees you hit a few shots and then thinks about changing something - or everything. You go to the range by yourself and instantly revert to random experimentation. Most players are better off understanding their current swing and learning how to play better with the ability that they have. That was the idea behind the coaching program. This is not a "take-it-apart-and-rebuild" program for your swing. The idea is to help you play better golf. In Indiana, we used to call that philosophy "dance with who brung ya".

If you’re focused on your game, then it makes sense that your coach should also be focused on your game. That means he has to play golf with you and see how you get around the course. If you are making obvious mistakes, get them fixed quickly. Otherwise, pay attention to the specific shots that you need to work on - and practice those shots.

Eric’s Coaching Program includes weekly practice sessions. He’s at Poppy Ridge all day on Saturday and other days by appointment. He has specific lesson plans worked out for those who want formal, group instruction - such as lag putting or chipping. You can stay all day and hit all the balls you can stand. It’s an obvious method: if you want to get better, figure out the shots you need to improve and then practice those shots.

Over the next couple of months, I’ll be describing my experience in the coaching program in a diary. You’ll be able to take a peek into how the idea works out in practice. You already know part of the story - my first "playing lesson" was disconcertingly good. Was it just the high MOI driver? I don’t think so. Here’s what happened:

On the third hole, Eric said that he noticed a flaw in my setup. I was taking a balanced position, but lining the ball up slightly off the toe of my club. When I got ready to hit, I made an almost imperceptible move forward to align the ball on the center of the clubface. In the process, I pulled myself off balance. Eric and I have discussed balance a lot, so finishing a swing on balance is a high priority for me.

I made an immediate change. I moved a bit closer to the ball. I took my stance with the ball lined up in the middle of the clubface. The result was immediate. I already reported the result - fourteen greens at Poppy Ridge - a personal high. A couple that I missed were long - it’s not too bad when your miss is "too solid". Eric said that after watching me swing hundreds of days indoors, he never would have noticed the flaw unless he was watching me on the course.

You can kill two birds with one stone. I’ll be at Poppy Ridge most Saturday afternoons - after the tournaments - with a bag full of wedges, utilities and fairways for hands on fitting off of grass. Be sure to call the Golf Lab for an appointment.

Plan Your Visit to the Golf Lab

The Golf Lab is a hangout. When I founded the Golf Lab with Bob Huff over six yeas ago, we were two certified golf nuts with an idea to create the custom golf shop that we would go to. Our vision was to build a place that dedicated golfers would seek out to help them play better golf. For us, it has never been about flogging products. We don’t have any "favorite lines". At the Golf Lab, the only thing that counts is performance that we can measure. That’s why we spent so much of our treasure buying launch monitors and electronic gizmos to help us understand what our eyes cannot see. That’s why we bought a license for the SST PUREing system instead of a new Lexus. We wanted our customers to know that there was no shop in the world that had better equipment to help us match the clubs we deliver to the specification that we fit. And that’s the way it is today. Our shop is crammed with the latest electronics and complete Mitchell professional equipment to perform any clubmaking operation. That includes rare services like bending utility wood, fairways and putters. We don’t think that we’re bragging when we call it "The Golf Lab."

The Golf Lab is about people - and respect for our customers. Our business model is built on the idea that when you take time out of your day to visit a custom golf shop, you want to talk to a person whose knowledge and experience you understand and respect. There is no greater disappointment than to walk in the door of your favorite shop and find that "no one’s home". From day one, we have endeavored to make sure that senior staff was on hand all opening hours. Bob and I are two of the most experienced club fitters and clubmakers in the world. That’s not bragging, that’s just adding up years of experience times number of customers served - and results achieved.

When you book an appointment at the Golf Lab, you get our undivided attention. If you book a full fitting, we will set aside a minimum of two hours to get the job started. We will have time for a "quiet conversation" to understand your game and your goals. Then, we will have time to measure your current clubs and verify their performance. We’ll have time to compare the performance of your current clubs to an array of our test clubs. Then, we’ll spend as long as it takes to follow up to find the Magic Clubs for your bag.

If you just want to pay a quick visit to ask a few questions, call ahead. If you do, we’ll be waiting when you arrive with time set aside to answer your questions and perform any required testing. If you have a small job, we’ll take care of it while you wait so you don’t have to come back.

Our goal is to take the uncertainty and guesswork out of buying golf clubs. With our sophisticated testing and measurement methods, we can be certain that the clubs in your bag will deliver the best possible performance.

Update on Iron Byron and Scratch Golf

One of our proudest accomplishments at the Golf Lab is helping talented young guys get into the golf business. One of the first was Patrick Boyd, known to Golf Today readers as "Iron Byron" a fabulous player, great crash test dummy and the very first Golf Lab "Shaft Boy".

Patrick spent a year or so with the Golf Lab and then moved to Stockton to help launch the Nakashima phenomenon in 2005. From there, he joined up with Scott Son, a Nakashima founder to form Versus Golf. That meant a move to Atlanta and a couple of trips to China but in the end, the Versus project didn’t work out. Patrick has a great eye for irons and worked with Steve Almo at Geek Golf to bring his designs to market. After a stint back at the law firm, Patrick is moving to Eugene, Oregon to join Scratch Golf.

Patrick is like a lot of us. All he wants is the very best irons he can put in his bag - custom made for him - and a perfect fit. While he was at the Golf Lab, it’s safe to say that he tried every shaft on the planet. Over the years, he’s done the same with iron heads. He’s had them all, from Maxfli’s to Miuras.

Last summer Scratch Golf caught our eye. The little Oregon Company was trying to do something different. Founder Ari Techner is also a certified golf nut. He started with wedges, custom grinding sole shapes to match any player’s whim. They developed a relationship with one of the top Japanese foundries - Ishihara. They branched out from wedges to irons. Now, they’re even doing custom heads to fit modern hickory shafts - the ultimate oxymoron - but not that illogical for a golf nut.

Scratch is offering a product that you can’t get anywhere else - pure custom Japanese forged irons hand ground to your exact specification. That includes grind marks if you want them and your initials stamped into the heads. You could even design your own stamps if you wanted to decorate your irons in a way that is absolutely unique. In Patrick’s case, he sat next to the master grinder while his heads were completed - then finished them with antique gunmetal and shafted them with a set of his favorite Tour Concept shafts. He hasn’t looked at another set of irons since he put the Scratch clubs in his bag.

Scratch deserves the support of all serious golfers who want to see creative little companies succeed. To do our part, we’re creating a unique fitting option. In conjunction with Eric Jones’ Performance Coaching Program, we’ll be at Poppy Ridge with a couple of bags full of custom Scratch wedges on Saturday afternoons most of the summer and other days by appointment. The only way you can test a wedge is to hit it off of grass. We’ll have Scratch wedges set up with exotic shafts: Rifle Spinners, Project X and Aerotech heavy graphite. We’ll have every sole grind. If you’re thinking about taking strokes off of your score in 2007, you’re more likely to do it with a couple of new wedges than a new driver. Call the Golf Lab to set up your appointment and plan to make a trek out to Poppy Ridge.

Although we think that the best fitting experience is available indoors with sophisticated electronics, when you’re talking about wedges, fairway woods and utilities, you’re better off on the range. If you’re looking for perfection, you’ve got to do both.

We’ll see you in Palo Alto or Livermore.

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions relating to club fitting and club making. Contact: Leith@calgolftech.com.